The new top U.S. envoy to North Korea is calling for Pyongyang to take “concrete steps” in order to revive stalled multilateral talks over its nuclear program.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Glyn Davies said Thursday that North Korea should fulfill promises it made in 2005 to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits.

Davies said the United States plans to continue bilateral nuclear talks with North Korea, but that the U.S. is not interested in having “talks for talks' sake.”

Since July, the U.S. and North Korea have held two rounds of talks aimed at finding a way to resume six-party negotiations, which Pyongyang abandoned in April 2009.

Davies arrived Wednesday in South Korea as part of his first visit to the region since being appointed in October.

He is meeting with South Korean officials to discuss the two countries's joint approach to the North Korean nuclear issue.

Last month, North Korea announced it was making rapid progress in producing enriched uranium for its light water nuclear reactor, raising fresh concerns that the project could be used to develop atomic weapons.

North Korea unveiled its low-enriched uranium plant a year ago, saying it would be used to generate electricity.

But some Western observers fear the facility could easily be converted to produce highly-enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear bombs.

Two years ago, North Korea abandoned talks with the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia aimed at convincing Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

The North has in recent months pressed to resume the talks without preconditions, but Washington and Seoul say Pyongyang must first shut down its uranium enrichment program and take other steps to demonstrate its sincerity.

North Korea already possesses a plutonium-based nuclear stockpile that is estimated to be capable of producing several atomic bombs.